This is indeed a spooky area. Danvers was in fact Salem Village, the starting-point of the witch hysteria of the 1690s. It also has Lovecraftian associations.
Handsome as these buildings undoubtedly are, I can't for the life of me understand the mentality of those who would convert them into rental units, not to mention the state of mind of those who would actually live in them, regardless of the almost palpable legacy of suffering and cruelty and pain almost the whole of the place gives off.
I suspect posterity will not deal very kindly with the town and commonwealth officials who allowed these buildings to fall into disrepair, & let them be sold off as 'luxury condos'.
Finally, I wonder about a society that no longer feels the slightest obligation towards protecting the weak, the mentally ill, the poor & defenseless. This hospital was built with the loftiest aspirations & did succeed for a time in bringing about a change in the way 'lunatics' were treated, until it became a dumping-ground for the unwanted. Looking at the zeppelin-sized reception area makes you wonder, too, how many patients were in fact dysfunctional (by today's standards) & how many were given life sentences there because they were vagrants, or 'difficult', or old and poor, or just in the way somehow, of no further use ...
Boy, does this bring back memories. The Haunted House was one of my favorite 'rides', & easily one of the cheesiest in the park. I remember those swinging, galley-like doors in the photo above, how the cars bumped thru them into the darkness of the house itself; the smell inside, of (diesel?) fumes, oil, grease is an indelible memory. Best of all was the skeleton figure at the end of the ride (I think): just as you rounded the corner towards the exit & out into the light of day, it pulled open its cloak & flashed its withered titties at you! Great fun.